December WIPocalypse

Since I was ill during most of December I only managed to stitch during the first week and now, during the last week. Even so I completed Foxes Few for my granddaughter and completed the final finishing on it as well as the Tired Trio.

I originally had planned on giving these to the girls for their birthdays but changed my mind and gifted to them at Christmas. Each was finished with a lovely backing of velvet from Dames of the Needle and I attached a small charm to the back of each. One was a fox and one a small sloth.The girls loved their stitches!

 

I started a couple of new pieces at the beginning of the month which I'm just getting back to now. The first is called For You by Plum Street Samplers and I have too few stitches to show you yet.
However I've much more progress done on Stacy Nash Merry Christmas Pinkeep.

I only have the remaining first half of the alphabet and then the border to complete. I'm not sure it will be done by year's end but that's ok. Sorry about the lighting in this pic. It's extremely overcast here today as we are being hammered with a winter storm of freezing rain.

I also picked up a finish at the framer this month. This was my first finish of 2019, The Good Shepherd by Prairie Moon.

On review of my WIPocalypse list I had set out I found that I completed the 3 pieces carried over from 2018 and in addition I completed 22 other works for a grand total of 25 completed stitches. I'm happy with that number. As in the past I really only completed a few of the choices from my original list and added many others that struck my fancy throughout the year. That's usually the case for me. I can never stick to the original plan. My stitching is based on my mood which seems to change rapidly, lol! You can always see my completed finishes on the separate page of 2019 finishes.

Now it's time for me to pick out a few finishes that will make up my list for WIPocalypse 2020. Over the next few days I'll browse through my charts and compile a small list. Hope to see you and your lovely stitches once again in the coming year. 
Happy New Year all!

December Smalls

There was no new stitching of smalls that took place this month. I had all these plans and had pulled all manner of charts from my stash however a vile virus destroyed all my plans. Around Dec. 8 I started to feel not quite like myself and over the next few days realized that my body was fighting something. By my husband's birthday on the 12th I knew I was full out sick and I didn't recover to any extent until the 23rd! By then I had seen the doctor who diagnosed a chest cold/virus that had morphed into bronchitis and now required antibiotics. The drugs did their thing and my lungs are very slowly recovering. I suspect the coughing will go on for a couple more weeks though.
Consequently I did nothing and I mean nothing! I had no energy to even pick up my needle and I'm only just now starting to stitch again. Once my energy did start returning I got down to some serious finishing. I had my granddaughters ornies to complete as well as a friend's gift. During the process I also finished off several other small pillows.

Here are my gift finishes:

The two for my granddaughters are designed by The Little Stitcher and the last one is a design by Little House Needleworks called Potted Poinsettia.

Here is a pic of the ornaments and pillows I set out to finish followed by some pics of my small pillow displays throughout the house.

So no new stitches but lots of finishes! I'm pleased with how the month ended after losing most of it to ill health. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very low key because although I'm somewhat recovered, my hubby is just coming down with a cold. 
Here's to lots of new smalls stitching in the New Year!

November Smalls

With Christmas just around the corner I pulled out my Christmas stitching and got started with a few ornaments. None of the final finishing is complete yet. I'll do them all at once when the time comes. 
I started with the ornaments for my granddaughters. These two ornaments are part of a collection by The Little Stitcher called the Twelve Days of Christmas, Part 1 and Part 2. They can be purchased separately or as one booklet and can be found on her Etsy shop. 

 The Day of Snow and Ice

The Day of Folly

These ornament designs are so sweet and took very little time to stitch up. I've picked my backing fabrics and will finish them both as tree ornaments.

Two by Two Deer is designed by The Prairie Schooler and is an oldie but a goodie! The chart can be found in the Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornament issue from 1998. I've been meaning to stitch this one for quite awhile. It's about time I got around to it!! 

Those are my three Smalls finishes for this month. I hope to have a couple more next month but often time runs out as we get closer to the holidays. I really only need to stitch one more gift so keep your fingers crossed! See you next month.

November WIPocalypse

With the arrival of November comes Christmas stitching. So for now I have put aside my Pennsylvania Dutch Sampler and started on stitching gifts as well as some Christmas stitching for our home.

Several of the pieces I've completed are smalls which I will be showing later this week on my Smalls post. 

The two other pieces I started are slightly larger than what I consider a small and are gifts for my granddaughters. The first, which I've completed, is Plum Street Samplers Tired Trio.

I loved these adorable sloths as soon as I set eyes on them. I originally planned on giving this to Summer for a birthday gift as her birthday is tomorrow. However her sister Oceanne loves foxes and I knew she might feel left out so I'm stitching Foxes Few for her and will give them both at Christmas.

The linen in the latter pic appears warped but I was lazy and took this shot while it was still on the Q-snap and I only had 3 sides of it tightened. As you can see I'm not quite finished the foxes yet but they are sooo cute! I love this series that Paulette has designed and her latest release, Rack Stack, is one that I plan on stitching for myself. I love it!!

I haven't decided yet on a pillow finish or an ornament finish for these cuties but I don't have time to waste so I'll be making my mind up quickly once I've finished the second one.

I have several choices to stitch for myself once the above two are completed. I browsed through my stash and pulled out a number that are candidates. The final choice will be decided on whether I have linen and floss handy for the design. The list includes:

Country Stitches Peppermint and Holly, Stacy Nash Gathering The Greens, Heartstring Samplery Morning Star and Plum Street Sampler Yuletide Welcome. I would be more than happy to have any one of these lovlies decorating my home. I might even try to fit in an ornie for my twig tree! 

There are two more new releases that I would love to stitch at a later date: Chessie and Me Peace and Goodwill Sampler and La D Da Merry Christmas Sampler.

We've already had our first snowstorm of the season which took place on the evening of Remembrance Day, Nov. 11.  We had a received a small amount on Nov. 7 and the temps remained cold so we ended up with a total of about  20cm ( 7-8 inches) on the ground. All of our leaves hadn't even finished falling yet!  Milder temps this past week have melted all of that away now and there is no snow forecast in the immediate future. 

See you all soon with my Smalls posting!

October WIPocalypse

For the first time in quite a while I didn't work on a small finish this month. I actually started one but quickly lost interest because my WIPs were calling to me.

The two WIPs that I'm referring to are The Primitive Needle Witches Nine and Willow Hill Samplings Pennsylvania Dutch Sampler. The Pennsylvania Dutch Sampler occupied most of my time early in the month. I'm stitching this on a lovely piece of 40 ct Silkweaver Burmese Beige and I'm using a Gentle Arts Limited Edition floss, Cardinal. Here's my progress for the month.

I am loving how the floss looks on this fabric but early on I realized that I might run out. I'm only using one strand of floss to stitch with and I've already gone through half of a skein. I only have two skeins of this Limited Edition and I'm only halfway through the first page of the design. There are a total of 2 1/2 pages of stitching so it stands to reason that I'm going to run out. I wondered if there was some way that I could alter the pattern to accomodate the remaining floss? While I was thinking about it, a dear friend mentioned how much she loved the floss in this piece. I proceeded to tell her my dilemma. That's when she told me that she had purchased about a dozen of the skeins and offered to send me some as a pay it forward offer. I was thrilled!! So now I will be able to complete the entire design without modification.

I started Witches Nine towards the end of last month and picked it up again mid-October. It didn't take me longer to complete it. I've always loved all of Lisa Roswell's designs and I'm so very sorry that she is no longer with us. She loved designing for Halloween and added a touch of whimsy to all her pieces. If you recall, last year I stitched Annie Hyssop's Harvest Moon. This year it's her Witches Nine. This is stitched on Picture This Plus 36 ct Earthen linen using the called for Weeks Dye Works floss.

I am fortunate enough to have several of Lisa's designs in my collection and hope to get them all stitched at some point in time.

My hip is progressing well. Yesterday I received the nod from the surgeon to ditch the 6 wk protocols and I won't have reached my 6 weeks post op until Halloween. So that means that I can now get into a car in the normal fashion without laying the seat back and I can lift my leg to get into the bath/shower without using a shower bench. I am grateful that we already had one of the higher toilets installed in our home which makes all the difference when you are dealing with joint issues. I am slowly increasing my physio and my walking although I do find that I tire easily. 

I have enjoyed the extra stitching time that recovery affords but I'm also glad to start getting back into my normal routines. Christmas stitching is on my mind and as well I'm currently working on a small piece, Plum Street Samplers Tired Trio, for my granddaughter's birthday. If it's not complete at the end of November then it just may become a Christmas gift instead, lol!
See you all next month and happy stitching!!

September WIPocalypse

For the most part September has been an absolutely lovely month! The weather has been comfortable with cooler evenings and my favourite season is here.
I also love samplers which is why I decided to stitch along with the #samplerseptember group, started by KittenStitcher also better known as Theresa Venette. I knew I wanted a smaller sampler that could be done before the month's end so I checked out my stash and decided on Blackbird Designs Blooms for Sarah. My fabric was Vintage Buttermilk by Dixie Sampler Hand Dyed Fabrics and I used a gorgeous Silk 'N Colour Chocolate Caramel for my floss choice. It was a most enjoyable stitch and I completed it this past Saturday.

The picture really doesn't do it justice. Lighting was a real problem when I tried photographing it. After it was done I decided to tackle another sampler I've been wanting to see on my walls. This one is by Willow Hill Samplings and is simply called Pennsylvania Dutch Sampler. I'm stitching it on a lovely piece of 40 ct Silkweaver Burmese Beige using a Limited Edition Gentle Art Floss called Cardinal.

This is a fairly wide sampler and may take me a bit longer but I love the look of the floss on this fabric already. It should be really pretty!!

I had another new start the week before my surgery. This one has been waiting many moons in my stash for me to pull it out and get started. I'm fortunate to have quite a few designs by The Primitive Needle and this one was calling to me.

Witches Nine is being stitched on 36 ct Earthen using the suggested WDW floss. I love how it's stitching up!! My kids all love the Halloween designs and have already told me to hang onto them because they love them so much!

Speaking of my sons, the weekend before my hip surgery we all got together for our first dinner in Chris and V's new home. It's a rare occasion when I have all three sons together so I took the opportunity to snap a pic.

Chris' cats, my fur grandbabies, Nibs and Beldar got in on the action. Beldar wasn't too polite though baring his backside for the camera!

Here's a pic of all of us minus my hubby. Beldar graced us with his face for this one, lol!

That's it for this month. In keeping with October, the temps have started dipping down a tad more the past few days in anticipation. Cozy throws are appearing on the couch and I've stocked the cupboard with some of my favourite fall teas.Wish you could drop by for a visit!

September Smalls

I'm a little late in posting this month. Following my hip replacement surgery I found it difficult to sit for long periods of time. Things are coming along slowly but surely and as of this weekend I am a bit more comfortable and able to devote more time to my computer and stitching.

This month's small is a fall design by Stacy Nash  called The House on Pumpkin Hill pinkeep. It was a sweet little stitch which I quite enjoyed. The original called for fabric was Charcoal Gray linen which almost looked like it had a bluish tinge in the photo. I didn't have anything similar but upon delving through my fabric I found a Picture This Plus linen that I thought would work. Here's a pic of The House on Pumpkin Hill stitched on Picture This Plus Barnwood with the called for Gentle Art floss.

This will indeed be finished as a pinkeep once I'm able to sit at my sewing machine again.

My recovery from my surgery is going well. This is my second hip replacement so I knew what to expect. However the muscles in this hip are much weaker so I'm having to exercise it quite a bit more. When they got me into the OR they discovered that the hip was much worse than the xrays showed and had actually fused so that there was no rotation left in the hip. No wonder I was having such a difficult time moving it!!
 I had the surgery done on a Thursday and was back home again by the next evening. Very little pain this time and I rested for only a couple of days before I got moving again. Once again my trusty little sidekick stayed by my side and kept me company during my recuperation. After looking at this pic I realized just how much swelling I had in the legs. Things are better now.

Now that I've picked up my needle again I'm working on three different stitches and I still haven't picked out a small to do for next month. Of course it will probably be a Halloween stitch. I love putting out various pinkeep displays throughout the house. 

The signs of fall are all around us now and I'm trying to get out and enjoy the emerging colour. 

Now I'm off to enjoy my pumpkin spice coffee. See you soon!

August Smalls

I finished one new small this month but I also managed to get my smalls from last month finished into ornaments for gifts. The first is a name tree which I gifted to my cousin Sheryl and it's designed by M Designs.

The second gift was for my friend Nan who will be moving to Hawaii once her home in the US is sold. This is Aloha Tree by Nouveau Encore Designs.

I'm so happy that they both loved their gifts! It makes me so happy to see their faces when they open them. I'll be making more of these in the future. I've yet to complete one for each of my sisters.

My small finish this month is courtesy of my friend Nan. Nan is the genius behind Threadwork Primitives Designs Recently I got together with several of my close stitching friends at the home of Cathy, in Sudbury. Nan brought each of us a small design she had created for fun. Along with the design she provided a piece of linen and floss so that we could each work on our project while we were all together. 

Here's my finish:

  Nan has already made her finish into a drum and it looks fantastic! I'd love to give this a try but I'll first have to obtain some sawdust for the stuffing. Fine sawdust is very easy to compact and make a firm drum. I have an example of a beautiful drum to share with you. This was given to me as a belated birthday gift during my visit with my stitching friends. This particular drum was created for me by Theresa Meloon who designs under the name Dulaney Woods Treasures.

Isn't it beautiful? Theresa, or Tee as we call her, makes the best drums! She has some very clear directions in her patterns and I hope to be trying a finish soon because she also gifted me with her latest design along with some Victorian Motto floss I had admired when she was stitching with it.

Cathy also gifted me with her latest design release for my birthday. Her chart also contained the fabric and floss neccesary for the final finish.

After all this, each participant received a gift from Tee and one from her sister Jo along with their mom Bev and friend Shelly.

 Tee designed the needleroll from an antique one that she picked up. Each needleroll was made from leftover fabrics and contains a thimble and pin cushion ends in addition to the felt for your needles. Brilliant!! 

Jo, Bev and Shelly combined forces to create the sweetest ort jars. Each jar was wrapped in a piece of needlework with the Canadian and US flags, our inital and a charm. The lid of each holds a magnetic needleminder!! How cool is that!

I am indeed blessed to have such wonderful, generous friends. 

Autumn is knocking on the doorstep and I'm in the mood for some fall stitching. Time to raid the stash again! See you next month.